12/23/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Hollidaysburg's JJ Stultz is pressured by Central's Landyn Kasun.

MARTINSBURG — Throughout almost every high school basketball game between two competitively close teams there will be ebbs and flows that exist in which one team will eventually ride their high to a win.

On Tuesday night, it was the Hollidaysburg boys that had more highs than lows against Central as the Golden Tigers were able to hang tight during a late Scarlet Dragon run before coming away with a 53-41 victory in Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference action.

“I told the kids — ebbs and flows,” Hollidaysburg coach Brad Lear said. “The game is high tide and low tide. We want to kind of stay in the tide pool as it doesn’t change. We want to just stay there.”

The Tigers’ J.J. Stultz was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim following a dunk off a steal and kick-ahead by Vince Albarano.

The Stultz flush stretched Hollidaysburg’s lead to 49-34 with 4:34 left in the fourth.

Central’s Dylan Hoover, who battled foul trouble a good portion of the evening, converted the first of two technical foul shots.

On the ensuing trip down the floor, the Dragons got a 3-pointer from Landon Rhodes, his third of the contest, and then another by Jesse Muthler following a missed shot by Hollidaysburg.

“I thought he (Stultz) was just trying to protect himself from the fall. I didn’t think he overly hung on it, but they (refs) saw it a different way,” Lear said. “They (Central) immediately hit two 3’s and a layup, and we turned the ball over and got two fouls.”

The trey by Muthler, who led Central with 17 points, at 3:56 brought his team to within single digits at eight (49-41).

“It was a good response from our kids — a couple times tonight we did that,” Central coach Paul Frederick said.

Those were the last points the Tigers gave up as they went into four corners mode to stall the game and steal momentum back from the Scarlet Dragons.

Hollidaysburg got two free throws from Tyson Delerme, and one apiece by Wyatt Frazier and Kasen Metzger to end the game.

“We weren’t able to score enough to stay with them throughout the game,” Frederick said. “Credit to them (Hollidaysburg) because they are tough on defense as well.”

Muthler hit the second of two foul shots in the early going to give Central a 3-2 advantage.

Metzger, who finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, responded by drilling a triple to kickstart a 14-8 spurt that extended into the second stanza and put the Tigers up 16-11.

Rhodes and Hoover hit back-to-back 3’s to put the Dragons back on top at 17-16 at the 4:45 point.

Hollidaysburg responded by closing out the half on a 9-2 run to take a 27-19 edge at the break.

Stultz, who led all scorers with 19 points, carried the spurt for the Golden Tigers as the junior got a steal and layup to put his team back in front 18-17 — prompting a timeout by Frederick.

Coming out of the timeout, Stultz came up with another steal and layup, and then, following a Muthler bucket, buried a deep 3-pointer to make it 23-19.

“J.J. has really done some masterful things for us over these last couple of games,” Lear said. “He’s really come into his own, and that’s a testament to his hard work.”

Ben Zimmerman hit two free throws, and then Jayden Wolfe scored his only two points to give Hollidaysburg the halftime edge.

The Golden Tigers wasted little time asserting themselves coming out of the break as a 10-2 burst gave them their largest lead of the night at 16 (37-21).

Hollidaysburg’s Albarano, who had to sit less than two minutes into the game after picking up three quick fouls — one of which was a technical at the 6:25 mark of the opening frame — canned a trey at 4:46 to give his team the 16-point lead.

Following a Christian Heuston driving layup for Central, Albarano, who ended with 10 points, hit a pair of foul shots to drive the gap back to 16 (39-23).

Central outscored the Tigers the rest of the third to set the contest at 45-32 heading into the fourth on a Heuston putback.

“We had a real poor start to the third quarter,” Frederick said. “Then we were able to settle in and play the rest of that quarter kind of even.”

Hollidaysburg’s record moved to 4-2, while Central, who was playing its first home game after starting with five straight on the road, also stands at 4-2.

HOLLIDAYSBURG (53): Wolfe 1 0-0 2, Albarano 2 5-8 10, Stultz 8 1-2 19, K. Metzger 5 2-4 15, Zimmerman 1 2-2 4, Delerme 0 2-2 2, Frazier 0 1-2 1. Totals — 17 13-20 53.

CENTRAL (41): Muthler 7 2-4 17, Heuston 3 0-0 6, Hoover 2 2-4 7, Rhodes 3 0-0 9, Beltz 1 0-0 2, Kasun 0 0-0 0, Decker 0 0-0 0, Scott 0 0-0 0, Reynolds 0 0-0 0, Wareham 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 4-8 41.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Hollidaysburg 14 13 18 8 — 53

Central 9 10 13 9 — 41

3-point field goals: Hollidaysburg 6 (K. Metzger 3, Stultz 2, Albarano); Central 5 (Rhodes 3, Muthler, Hoover).

Records: Hollidaysburg (4-2); Central (4-2).

JV: Hollidaysburg won 38-34. High scorers — Tyler Steiner H, 10; Parker Scott, C, 8